Texas business leaders call on lawmakers to drop 'bathroom bill'

Jeff
Moseley speaks at a rally of business leaders rally in front of
the Texas Capitol in AustinThomson
Reuters

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A group of Texas business leaders urged
state lawmakers on Monday to abandon plans to pass a bill to
restrict bathroom access for transgender people, calling such a
measure bad for the economy.

The Republican-dominated legislature begins a 30-day special
session on Tuesday with 20 items on the agenda, including one of
the "bathroom bills" that have been a flashpoint in U.S. culture
wars.

Supporter of the legislation have said it is a common-sense
measure that protects public safety. Critics call it
discriminatory.

Texas, the most powerful Republican-controlled state, could lose
about $5.6 billion through 2026 and businesses could find it
difficult to recruit top talent if such a measure is enacted,
according to the state's leading employer organization.

"The distraction of a bathroom bill pulls us away from being
competitive as a state," Jeff Moseley, chief executive of the
Texas Association of Business, told a rally outside the Capitol.

"On this discussion, conservatives can disagree with
conservatives," said Moseley, whose group has typically aligned
itself with the state's Republican leaders.

The legislation restricts access to places like bathrooms and
locker rooms based on the gender listed on people's birth
certificates and not the gender with which they identify.

A similar law in North Carolina, partially repealed in March,
prompted the relocation of sporting events and economic boycotts
that was estimated to have cost the state hundreds of millions of
dollars.

The stakes are higher in Texas, which has an economy larger than
Russia's.

A bill similar to North Carolina's passed the Texas Senate in the
regular session and was killed by pro-business Republican leaders
in the House, who ran out the clock on the measure.

The bathroom bill's main backer, Republican Lieutenant Governor
Dan Patrick, a social conservative who sets the state Senate's
legislative agenda, has said economic losses would be
inconsequential.

"(The Texas Republican majority) want to maintain separate
restrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities for men and women
and boys and girls, and they don’t care if the media thinks it is
politically incorrect," his political campaign said in a
statement on Monday.

Republican House of Representatives Speaker Joe Straus and
companies including IBM, American Airlines, Apple and Southwest
Airlines have spoken out against the bill.

"On the bathroom bill, there is no real compromise because even
the most mild bill is going to be interpreted as discriminatory,"
said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University
in Houston.